TITUSVILLE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th October, 2022) NASA and SpaceX currently see nothing that could potentially delay the launch of the Crew-5 mission flight to the International Space Station on Wednesday, SpaceX Human Spaceflight Programs senior director Benji Reed said during a conference call.
"I don't see any showstoppers here and I certainly don't see anything adding elevated risk to the mission," Reed said on Monday.
US Space Force 45th Weather Squadron launch weather officer Brian Cizek added that good weather is expected at the launch site Wednesday through Friday.
The Crew-5 flight scheduled for Wednesday will carry NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, who will serve as mission commander and pilot, respectively, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, who will serve as mission specialists.
In July, Roscosmos and NASA signed an agreement on integrated flights of cosmonauts and astronauts to the ISS. As part of the agreement, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket with a Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft was launched from Baikonur to the ISS on September 21 carrying another crew including Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin as well as NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio. The only female cosmonaut at Roscosmos, Kikina, will fly to the ISS on the US-made Crew Dragon spacecraft on Wednesday.
